Abstract
Objective: Veterinary Physiology course focuses on explaining why and how all the vital processes in the body of domestic animals work. In this study, it is aimed to determine how 2nd grade students of Kırıkkale University Faculty of Veterinary Medicine evaluate the content of the theoretical and practical physiology courses, the difficulties in their understanding and reasons for these difficulties.
Material and Methods: The questionnaire, answered by 129 students in total, consisted of six sections, and the questions were prepared as the 5-point Likert scale, execpt demographic information. Results of the survey with Cronbach alpha value of 0.83-0.94 were analyzed with descriptive and comparative statistical methods.
Results: The results of the survey showed that they were satisfied with the theoretical (62.8%) and practical (65.9%) physiology courses and thought that visuality was important in the theoretical lectures (92.2%), and the practical courses were explanatory and complementary to the theoretical subjects (62%). Although 50.4% of them stated that they have no difficulty in understanding the physiology, it was found that students had difficulties in nerve physiology (39.5%) and electrocardiography (26.4%) in theoretical and practical lessons, respectively. According to student’s participation rates, reasons for the difficulty in comprehension of physiology were determined as resulting from students, the course itself, and the teaching method/instructor.
Conclusion: It may be suggested that current/modern education techniques should be included in the teaching-learning process so that students can learn physiology better especially in difficult topics. In addition to classical laboratory practical courses, case-based or guided practicing methods can be included in the education process to increase students' curiosity, interest, and responsibility awareness.